Why preserve land?

First, a central tenet: land protection is not anti-development. We all hope for comfortable homes, nearby shops, good schools, and local religious institutions essential to a healthy and thriving community. Just as critical to a community’s economic and social vitality and resiliency, however, are ample open green spaces — spaces that counterbalance surrounding development and provide opportunities for exercise and solitary escape. We value the critical functions of healthy natural systems in managing stormwater, protecting groundwater sources, and filtering pollutants.

For these reasons alone, land protection is a worthy cause, but land protection offers so much more to both the landowner and the citizens of the surrounding areas. Preserved lands with forests help cleanse the air of pollutants, buffer streams, add to the landscape’s overall scenic beauty, and put us in touch with the natural rhythm of the seasons. Protected agricultural lands allow us to value the agrarian roots of our county. Lands that expand parks and other open spaces offer quiet refuge to a populace besieged by stress. Captured by the newly coined term, “nature deficit disorder,” the current urban population often lacks contact with nature. In older terms, it's described as the occasional needed foray off the beaten path.